Perfume Blog

Indie perfume brands I like!!

https://arcanawildcraft.com/pages/scent-list

https://www.astridperfume.com/

https://www.solsticescents.com/

https://www.stoneandwit.com/

https://deathandfloral.com/

https://alkemiaperfumes.com/

https://www.hausofgloi.com/

https://kyseperfumes.bigcartel.com/products

https://www.wyldeivy.com/

https://pulpfragrance.com/en-us/collections/perfume-all

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AndromedasCurse

https://www.sugarmilkco.com/

https://crowandpebble.com/

https://www.amorphousperfume.com/

https://fantomeperfume.com/

https://www.luvmilk.com/

https://www.hexennacht.com/

https://www.sugarandspite.net/

https://www.houseofkerosene.com/fragrances

https://sixteen92.com/

https://blackheartedtart.com/

https://nocturnealchemy.com/

https://nuicobaltdesigns.com/

https://www.poesieperfume.com/

nest santa barbara strawberry - juicy, sweet, red berry. smells like a whole bag of red skittles. its an oil so it lasts a good several hours.

replica into the garden - gorgeous artistic wet leaf and garden and herb. perfect for a rainy day hike. good for anyone who likes non-standard scents.

gisou wildflower honey - honey, wildflowers, a tinge of mandarin. perfect for a summer day in a meadow and lasts a WHILE in the hair.

gucci flora gorgeous magnolia - the only gucci flora scent i like. classic patchouli vanilla floral, simple and elegant. good for slightly classy events and not too imposing.

le monde gourmand lait de coco - smells exactly like the coconut lotion my mother used to put on me, like straight coconut milk scent.

Baptisma \ Chapel Factory

Top notes: verbena, bergamont, ginger

Middle notes: milk, neroli, jasmine

Base notes: white musk, oakmoss, incense

› initial impression (sprayed on new tester paper)

This perfume opens vibrantly with the lemon verbena, but that very quickly mellows out as the milk and neroli come straight forward. The ginger remains very faint through the opening and the dry down, there isn't much of what I would describe as a "spice" from it, in fact, unless you already know it's listed you may not even realize ginger is present. That isn't necessarily a negative though, this scent hardly needs it. The oakmoss and musk work well together as it settles to keep it in the realm of creamy yet grounded, it doesn't veer off into sugary sweet at all

› impression after sitting for two hours (on skin)

Baptisma creates a very rare kind of environment around the person wearing it. I had several people note that whatever I had on made them feel a range of emotions when they caught a whiff, from vulnerability to comfort. A friend commented that it made them think of sitting in a local church with their mother as a young child, a memory they hadn't thought of in quite some time. As it dries down on skin the milk and neroli do something I find quite special, they lend you the scent of what I would describe as newborn infant. There's something incredibly nurturing about the overall scent of Baptisma, it really is incredibly unique

❛ Overall thoughts ❜

This is an absolutely incredible hidden gem of a fragrance. While the full size bottle was sold out on the site I buy from, I am very glad I was able to get the nine milliliter sample, this is one I'm going to want to keep around for a long time. I will say it's definitely more of a spring scent, it's very light and airy but I can also see wearing this year round as a signature scent. It differs from many other perfumes with milk notes because it's not doing either "milky desert" or "straight up milk" it's attempting something unique while playing on memory in a way that's so skillfully executed I don't think any other perfume house could pull off the same end result of gently enveloping nostalgia. This is worth adding to a collection especially if you're looking for a fragrance that is light yet long lasting and very comforting in a maternal sort of vibe

what im wearing today. she’s like pressing your nose close to a cold waxy red berry scented candle. a soft powdery cosmetic note dusts the plasticy raspberry, lipstick and talc spilled at the bottom of a well used and well loved designer bag from the 70s

the violet is like powdered and falls gently on creamy raspberry wax. incredibly synthetic all round in a very pleasing way. the silage is aura like, the scent is a low comforting hum. a small and intimate bubble. a very vintage feel

› A Grove by the Sea \ Arquiste

Top notes: olive, fig leaf, salt, fennel, clementine

Middle notes: olive, fig, rosemary, thyme

Base notes: balsam fir, pine needles, cypress, clay

› Initial impression (sprayed on new tester paper)

Smells herby and refreshing, the salt balances the earthiness of the olive and fig leaf. Smells exactly like getting hit with a fresh, strong breeze carrying sea salt through a grove of trees while the remnants of a clementine rest in a napkin beside you and the juice dries on your fingers. Definitely a unisex scent although it leans masculine but the freshness of the clementine and salt keep it from being overly cologne-y.

› Impression after sitting for two hours

Dries completely into a warm, woody fragrance. The olive remains strong but now pairs with the balsam fir, pine needle, and cypress into a deep, comforting oud experience. The salt plays with your nose, disappearing and reappearing seemingly at random but it's not unpleasant or frustrating. It's like winding down after spending the day on an Adriatic seashore, those last remnants of salt spray clinging to your skin and hair as you rest with a drink and enjoy the evening air surrounded by trees and the rich undercutting of clay dirt.

❛ Overall thoughts ❜

(id in alt text)

tldr;

used to HATE this perfume, let it sit for almost a year…and now i like it. the notes of banana are definitely intense, but softened by the middle and base notes. sillage is moderate, longevity seems insanely intense. this is a unique smelling and well performing fragrance.

notes:

whew. this is a little bit of a weirdo! the rum is very present, as well as the bread and spice notes. at first, all you smell is banana and rum (which could be read as artificial, especially together, but i think it works). when the banana scent has mostly faded into the background, you get a delicious and almost photorealistic spiced banana bread. its slightly reminiscent of boysmells banana bread, but if it grew up and had a slight drinking problem. it’s a little masculine, very mature while still being fun and boozy.

sillage/longevity:

sillage is decent. it’s not a room filler but definitely could be oversprayed. it settles into a subtle scent, but it’s powerful at first. the longevity of this is insane on my skin. i sprayed it on my wrist a couple hours before i went to bed while i was thinking up what to write about it, and now upon waking up I CAN STILL SMELL IT ON MY WRIST. that’s crazy. that’s like 12 hours. and i’ve washed my hands at least twice in that time.

time/season:

this bad boy is a cold weather scent (to me). its powerful and it sticks to you, so i could really see this one becoming overwhelming in hot/muggy weather. i think it could be a day or night choice, it has versatility in that regard. however, this scent would be most at home on the wrist of someone grabbing a drink on a wintery evening.

mood board:

cool art professor with a drinking problem

personal notes:

their product descriptions, ad campaigns, and fans and customers (myself included!) place so much weight on the idea of “wearing” an emotion, using scent as a way to craft personal identity, to help you embody extremely specific feelings— which i get from both a personal and marketing standpoint. it’s so intimate, it’s about crafting a specific sense of self which is immediately recognizable to all around you, and they don’t even have to look at you to pick up on it! it’s ephemeral storytelling which you carry around on your very being! it’s so… fantastical and mystical feeling! like a magical glamour! while also being SO grounded in the physicality of the world, one of our most honest and difficult to ignore senses, an instinct to smell and be smelled which is such a basic animal impulse… idk i do love it, i am guilty despite my critiques of the industry! because it is also industry. from the marketing perspective, obviously, this crafting of selfhood moment to moment, ever-adaptable and easy as purchasing a new product, is something our generation is soooo obsessed with rn. see: microtrends, -cores, aesthetics, hyper-specific “types of girls”, etc! tiktok is already hitting me with so many perfume ads and i know it’s going to be even more widespread very soon

there’s also something about like… the pandemic + wearing masks + the profound and undeniable human relationship to scent which i find slightly more difficult to articulate! i still wear a mask and believe it is a social, political, and public health necessity for everyone else to wear one, too. but i also do get, like i said, the raw desire for scent. it is a sense so linked to human memory, human daily life, human connection, eroticism, etc. and many people who are the primary consumers of perfume and other scented items have obviously, even if only subconsciously, felt extremely deprived of that the past several years. we have been so literally chemically sterilized of all smell.